Working at the intersection of church and state

Jim Towey, 45, became the director of the director of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in February, after a career that included leading the Florida Department of Health and Human Services, 12 years as Mother Teresa’s attorney and a year living and volunteering full-time in her home for people with AIDS in Washington D.C. He started the non-profit Aging with Dignity foundation in 1996.

Towey and his wife, Mary, have four sons under the age of 10 and are expecting another baby in January.

Towey, a Catholic, shared his experiences, his encouragement and lots of entertaining anecdotes about Mother Teresa and his family with delegates to the joint national meeting of Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association Aug. 4. Afterward, he talked with The Catholic New World.

The Catholic New World: Until now, you spent most of your career doing direct service. Why did this job appeal to you?
Jim Towey: It was a chance to serve. I believe in what the president’s trying to do, and it seemed to bring together the different things I’ve done in my life. I was obviously a long shot, being a Democrat. I didn’t work in the campaign or anything like that. But the president never once asked about what’s my party background or anything. I felt like this was what I should do, and through prayer, I felt this was what God wanted me to do.
TCNW: How did you get the job?
JT: It’s kind of complicated. I was being considered before I even expressed an interest in the job. It all happened fast. John DiIulio (the first director of the office) resigned on a Friday, and fate had me eating dinner with [Florida Gov.] Jeb Bush that Monday, which happened to be Aug. 20, which was the anniversary of when I met Mother Teresa. I was in Jeb’s dining room, and we started talking about this job, and he started talking to his brother about it. One thing led to another, and then Sept. 11 came and that set things back a little. Anyway, I got appointed on my 10-year wedding anniversary, Feb. 1. I think Mother was pulling some strings up there.

TCNW: After your experience in faith-based programs, what do you think makes them uniquely qualified to help people?
JT: I think they can touch the spiritual poverty that people have. Anybody can pass out food and clothing, and it’s important that we do that and address the material poverty. But you’ve got to address why is this guy sticking a needle in his arm? Why is he abusing his children and his spouse? Why is she smoking crack and neglecting her children? The answers to these questions have to do with these people having lost their sense of dignity. They feel unloved and unwanted, they often hate themselves. If you don’t address that dimension of it, you’re often only putting Band-Aids on the problem.

TCNW: Is it the government’s place to address those problems?
JT: It’s not government’s place to promote religious beliefs or practice. It’s not government’s place to immerse itself in religious words, or use them at all, for that matter. I think the strength of our country is that we’re respectful of believers and non-believers alike, that in front of our constitution you stand equally. At the same time, we shouldn’t single out faith-based organizations as a group to discriminate against. So no, government should not be using tax dollars to promote religious belief or practice, or to preach. But certainly government money can be used by faith-based organizations to feed the hungry and house the homeless.
Often these programs will have privately-funded services, too. So if you go to a job-training program, you can teach this guy all the new skills in the world, but if he doesn’t quit drinking, he’s not going to be able to hold down a job. Now it’s not uncommon that a church group could get a job-training grant, and then across hall, privately funded, is a 12-step program that might help the same people.
A lot of poor, inner-city people don’t trust government, but a lot of them will trust that local pastor or rabbi or imam.

TCNW: What needs to change to make that whole partnership work better?
JT: We need to level the playing field so that faith-based organizations can compete like anybody else to provide federal services. We can make the public square faith-friendly by preserving their right to maintain their religious identity while they provide a service. We need to make clear that there are things you can’t do if you are going to be partners with the federal government.
Some groups will not want tax dollars. That’s OK. We wish them well. We thank them for their work. A lot of them don’t want to risk entanglement with federal bureaucracy, red tape or control. Fair enough. Our goal is to make sure that faith-based organizations, grass-roots groups, the little people sometimes, can provide these services, and if they provide them well, that we use them, we don’t shut ourselves off from them.

TCNW: (At CCUSA) you spoke to an audience of two groups that do work with the government. How can groups like this help get the message out about what faith-based organizations can do?
JT: Well, some of these are big providers. Let’s take the Archdiocese of Chicago, where you’ve got Catholic Charities, and then you’ve got these many, many programs that branch out like a network. One of the goals isn’t to say, “Catholic Charities, you ought to think about working with the federal government,” because they already are. It’s more to say how can we work at a neighborhood level, to collaborate your work with other groups—Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, Jewish faith-based organizations and groups of no particular faith?

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